(BLOOMBERG) Paramount Global is moving ahead with asset disposals to raise cash, people familiar with the matter said, amid the ongoing takeover saga involving the media company.
The CBS parent has hired a bank to help it explore options, including a potential sale of a dozen TV stations that it considers non-core, the people said.
KCCW (Channel 12) in Minneapolis
KMAX-TV (Channel 31) in Sacramento
KPYX (Channel 44) in San Francisco
KSTW (Channel 11) in Seattle
KTXA (Channel 21) in Dallas
WBFS (Channel 33) in Miami
WBXI-CD (Channel 47, Start TV) in Indianapolis
WKBD (Channel 50) in Detroit
WLNY (Channel 55) in New York City
WPSG (Channel 57) in Philadelphia
WSBK (Channel 38) in Boston
WUPA (Channel 69) in Atlanta
I can imagine the Cox Media Group buying back KSTW, leading to a duopoly with KIRO 7.
Could happen. KSTW would be KIRO+ and regurgitate the newscasts as well as a secondary channel for sports.
I forgot that Cox owned KSTW for a microsecond after Gaylord.
7 and 11 have been strange bedfellows over the years.
There you go.
Morgan Murphy Media owns KXLY TV in Spokane, 11 radio stations and among other properties, this cluster in Victoria, Texas.
KAVU (ABC) -25.1
KVCT (FOX) -19.1
KXTS (CBS) – 41.1
KMOL (NBC) – 17.1
KVTX (Telemundo) – 45.1
KUNU (Univision) – 21
Antenna TV – 41.2
25Now (24/7 weather information) – 25.4
This TV – 19.3
Movies! – 17.2
MeTV – 33.1
That’s kinda interesting.
Check out the other properties: https://morganmurphymedia.com/
(WIKIPEDIA)
KAVU-TV (channel 25) is a television station in Victoria, Texas, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by Morgan Murphy Media, it is the largest station in the Victoria Television Group, which also includes the low-power affiliates of NBC (KMOL-LD channel 17), CBS (KXTS-LD channel 41), Univision (KUNU-LD channel 21), Telemundo (KVTX-LD channel 45), and Cozi TV (KQZY-LD channel 33); additionally, Morgan Murphy provides certain services to Fox affiliate KVCT (channel 19) under a local marketing agreement (LMA) with SagamoreHill Broadcasting. The Victoria Television Group studios are located on North Navarro Street, with transmitter facilities on Farm to Market Road 236 west of the city.
Weigel already has KVOS out of Bellingham and carries Univision and METV here. I wonder if they might be an obvious buyer. Thoughts? Mr. Robbins, what say you?
Weigel was in my Top 3 possible buyers. Similarly, a Me/My TV type sitcom showcase would obviously fit. Whoever buys it might want to bid for some sports events to really draw viewers. That would require a major player to purchase K$TW.
Since Paramount laid off the half dozen KSTW employees in February, KSTW’s creative services output — including station and programming promos and social media marketing — has been performed by CBS-owned sister station KPIX (Channel 5) in San Francisco. KPIX also produced a localized newscast for KSTW until August 2023.
KSTW previously served as the Seattle area’s CW Network station until last year, when Paramount converted it and seven other stations into full-time independent operations.
KSTW carries no CBS news, does not have a local news presence and carries programming that could be found with online streaming services, as do the following stations in the list.
KCCW Walker, Minnesota is a clone of WCCO mirroring the programming of that station. Much like JOE KZJO here or FOX 13+ as KCPQ calls it.
KMAX Sacramento is an Independent with programming you can find FREE with online streaming services (FAST TV- Free, ad-supported television is a form of streaming that delivers programming similar to cable, satellite or traditional TV)
KPYX San Francisco carries much of the KPIX news programming along with off-network/off-cable shows.
KTXA Dallas is an Independent with cop/courtroom programs and sitcoms.
WBFS Miami carries a minimal amount of the CBS sister staion’s news programming and off-network sitcoms.
WBXI Indianapolis carries START TV junk. Lots of TMZ.
WKBD Detroit is much like others listed here, courtroom-sitcom and minimal news from the CBS sister station.
WLNY New York City same sitcoms and courtroom tv, minimal carriage of CBS news.
WPSG Philadelphia is a carbon copy of the others listed here.
WSBK Boston same as above with an abundance of paid programming thrown in.
WUPA Atlanta same as above with some religious programming and Pawn Stars from a cable network.
KCCW is a satellite station to WCCO. It doesn’t have a unique schedule like KZJO, it just runs a simulcast. They might drop in some local ads if they still have a sales presence up there. It used to be a satellite of a station in Alexandria. WCCO bought both prior to their acquisition by CBS and ran them as semi-satellites running news out of Alexandria. The news department was shut down over 20 years ago and the Alexandria frequency was auctioned off.
Walker (population 900) is 160 miles from Minneapolis. It’s actually closer to Fargo. Unlike the others on the list, it wouldn’t surprise me if KCCW gets shut down if they can’t find a religious broadcaster to buy it.
All of these stations compete with the free tv offerings available on streamers like Pluto.tv which is one of my favorites. I’d rather watch Bar Rescue than King of Queens, but that’s just me. I channel surf generally and there really are 500 channels out there with nothing to watch.
So, the odds I would switch on Channel 11 and watch it for hours, that is just not going to happen.